Most Expensive Persian Carpets

#9 At Sotheby’s London’s “Arts associated with the Islamic World” auction on October 7, 2009, this Safavid silk, wool, and metal-thread prayer carpet was predicted at $127, 368 to $191, 052. The circa-1575-to-1625 carpeting, inscribed with Persian verses in nastaliq, received an astonishing $4.3 million, which makes it the ninth most expensive carpeting previously offered at auction. The inscriptions suggest that it might probably have now been a diplomatic present from Safavid Persian court to the Ottoman Turks.

# 8Three rugs of this specific design by Pierre-Josse Perrot had been made for the Crown Furniture Repository in France, the administration accountable for furnishings and art in the royal residences. ThisLouis XV Savonnerie carpet, woven at some point between 1740 and 1750, had been the past one produced. The carpet exceeded an estimate of $2 million to $4 million, selling for $4.4 million, as part of Christie’s New York’s November 2, 2000, purchase “Magnificent French Furniture.”

# 7 Relating to historians at Christie’s, this silk Isfahan rug is a great example of Safavid art through the reign of Shah Abbas (1587–1629). That might be why the circa-1600 carpeting maintained an esteemed provenance through the many years, moving into the collections of art collector and philanthropist Grace Rainey Rogers, Armenian-American archaeologist and art enthusiast Hagop Kevorkian, as well as Doris Duke and also the Newport Restoration Foundation. The lot garnered $4.45 million at Christie’s New York’s June 3, 2008, “Oriental Rugs and Carpets” purchase after becoming determined at $1 million to $1.5 million.